Warcraft 3 lags when I use Print Screen

[Kam]

What is the cause of this issue?

Intel Core i5 4670 3.4Ghz
GeForce GTX 770
16 GB Ram
Windows 7 64 bit

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Have you tried it with both -opengl on and off?

 

[Kam]

Have you tried it with both -opengl on and off?

Where is that option?

 

[Deleted member 219079]

Program launch arguments.

Type -opengl after the game path in wc3's shortcut.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It does not lag as no network traffic is generated. Screen capture in WC3 performs so badly that it forces the game to drop several frames and become unresponsive for an excessive amount of time.

Your computer specifications make no difference since it is the game process itself performing badly. When you press print screen the game makes a screen dump in the Screenshots folder of WC3. Not only is this in a very poor format (no compression, huge size) but it also must block until it is written out, possibly written out a pixel at a time. I am also guessing this is all done by the main thread as otherwise the writing would be trivial (worker thread runs in parallel so game continues after capturing the screen). The result is that even on a monster computer print screen will cause a horrible number of frame drops.

It may also be caused by how the DX8 calls used to make the screen dump operate. You must remember WC3 is very old and a lot of modern graphic optimizations we take advantage did not exist back then. A good example is how when AA is enabled (at the driver level, WC3 was before it was commonly supported by applications) the screen shot WC3 dumps appears messed up on certain cards/drivers. This means they are not dumping the output buffer but instead some internal buffer.

The solution is simple. Do not use WC3's print screen. Instead bypass it. The native print screen functionality of the OS will perform considerably better (probably not even drop a single frame). Alternatively third party screen capture programs will also perform better (and they can be made to automatically save screenshots like WC3). You can also perfectly video capture WC3 as that again bypasses the WC3 process, often capturing directly from the GPU, this is how people live stream WC3 and make youtube submissions.

 

[Kam]

Thank you for the detailed explanation.

The native print screen functionality of the OS will perform considerably better (probably not even drop a single frame).

Is the Prt Scr key not the native function?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Is the Prt Scr key not the native function?

Yes but it is also bound to the Warcraft III process print screen which is what makes the lag. The WC3 process is the one that pops up "screen saved" and it is the one that drops considerable number of frames when you press it.

It should not drop any frames if done correctly. This is how people can stream WC3. Both SC2 and D3 (newer Blizzard games) have no problem with screen capture even with their in game screen shot save system. It drops at most 1-2 frames, which seem related to how fast I/O is performed.

 

[Kam]

Yes but it is also bound to the Warcraft III process print screen which is what makes the lag. The WC3 process is the one that pops up "screen saved" and it is the one that drops considerable number of frames when you press it.

It should not drop any frames if done correctly. This is how people can stream WC3. Both SC2 and D3 (newer Blizzard games) have no problem with screen capture even with their in game screen shot save system. It drops at most 1-2 frames, which seem related to how fast I/O is performed.

Is there a way to unbind it?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Not as far as I can tell. Only newer Blizzard games like World of Warcraft seem to allow you to unbind it.

 

[Kam]

Not as far as I can tell. Only newer Blizzard games like World of Warcraft seem to allow you to unbind it.

I suppose I can run it through steam and use F12.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Why is the performance an issue anyway? 1 second delay for a screen dump seems reasonable as you will only take them rarely.

 

[Kam]

Why is the performance an issue anyway? 1 second delay for a screen dump seems reasonable as you will only take them rarely.

It causes about 4-5 seconds of lag on bnet.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It causes about 4-5 seconds of lag on bnet.

Then that is your computer as it does not for me. It should not even generate any lag as no network traffic occurs (maybe your computer has malware?).

 

[edo494]

it lags for good 10 seconds for me, and I do not have any malware, and have above decent computer

 

[Dr Super Good]

Are you confusing lag with poor performance? Lag is latency with responses where as poor performance means unresponsive applications or dropped frames.

 

[Kam]

Are you confusing lag with poor performance? Lag is latency with responses where as poor performance means unresponsive applications or dropped frames.

I suppose I am. What would cause Wc3 to perform poorly on such a modern PC?

 

[edo494]

nitpicking? it freezes the game for good 10 seconds, I have no idea if the game itself is frozen, or only the graphical output is frozen, I never tested that and dont remember

 

[Dr Super Good]

What would cause Wc3 to perform poorly on such a modern PC?

Being badly written? As I said it probably blocks for I/O which even on modern computers could take a few seconds depending on state and type of hard drive.

it freezes the game for good 10 seconds, I have no idea if the game itself is frozen, or only the graphical output is frozen, I never tested that and dont remember

You use a mechanical hard disk right? It could be that the drive went to sleep (turned off) meaning that in order to write the file it has to spin back up to speed. Depending on the make of drive this can take in the order of 5-10 seconds. It is controlled by power management settings but I would not recommend turning it off since it may detrimentally affect drive life (more it spins, the shorter it lives).

 

[edo494]

Yes, I use HDD.

It is not that tho, because even if I am downloading something from website, which for sure does writing to my hard drive, it will still have the same amount of lag.

You have already covered why it is so, shitty way of taking the picture

 

[Ralle]

The higher the resolution the longer time it will take too. If you are using a 4K monitor at native resolution it will take quite a bit of time. If you really need to take a lot of screenshots, try doing it at a lower resolution.